Legendary country music artist and MTSU supporter Charlie Daniels will sign copies of his new book, “Let’s All Make the Day Count: The Everyday Wisdom of Charlie Daniels,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, at Middle Tennessee State University’s Phillips Bookstore, 1768 MTSU Blvd.

Later that same afternoon Uncle Dave Macon’s great-grandson, author Michael D. Doubler, will share scholarly stories as well as personal and family tales from his new book, “Dixie Dewdrop: The Uncle Dave Macon Story,” to help readers better understand the first Grand Ole Opry superstar when he visits MTSU’s Center for Popular Music on Wednesday, Nov. 14.

Let’s All Make the Day Count

Released Nov. 6, the inspirational book shares the Daniels’ “signature wit and powerful lessons he’s learned from traveling and playing all around the world.”

The front cover of Charlie Daniels' new book.
Legendary country music entertainer Charlie Daniels will sign copies of his new inspirational book, “Let’s All Make the Day Count: The Everyday Wisdom of Charlie Daniels,” from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14, in the MTSU Phillips Bookstore, 1768 MTSU Blvd. The public is invited. (Submitted photo)

The public is invited. Copies of the book will be available for purchase from the bookstore for $16.99 plus tax. Store manager Jeff Whitwell said copies of the book Daniels signed at MTSU in November 2017 — “Never Look at the Empty Seats: A Memoir” — will be available for sale for $24.99 plus tax.

To find parking near the Student Union, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/parking/2018ParkingMap.pdf. All visitors are requested to use parking meters, obtain a permit from the Parking and Transportation Services office at 1403 East Main St. or print a visitor pass at https://mtsu.t2hosted.com. Visitor permits are $2 per day.

The Charlie and Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center at MTSU is named for the Danielses. Through Daniels’ Journey Home Project foundation, which assists other not-for-profits in securing funds to benefit veterans and assist in their transition from uniform into civilian life, gifts totaling $220,000 have been provided to the center.

The Dixie Dewdrop

Doubler, whose previous books have focused on military history, will speak at 4:10 p.m. Nov. 14 in Room 160 of MTSU’s College of Education building, located at 1820 MTSU Blvd. The talk is free and open to the public.

Doubler’s new book focuses on four factors in his “Pap’s” life: Macon’s love of music, his love for his family, his struggles with alcohol and depression, and his religious faith. Macon learned to play guitar and piano in the family home near Smartt Station, Tennessee, and when the Macons moved to Nashville to run a hotel, then-13-year-old David befriended and learned to play banjo from a circus comedian.

Macon first performed professionally at age 50; until then, he’d dabbled in music part-time for 30 years, preferring to continue with his successful Rutherford County freight-hauling business and play and sing for his customers as a bonus. Rather than trade in his mules and wagons when trucks became more popular in 1920, Macon closed his business and commenced singing and playing full-time.

He was touring on the vaudeville circuit with fiddler Sid Harkreader and other acts by 1923, appearing on the Opry by 1925 and had already recorded 115 songs of his own by the time the “Bristol sessions” of 1927 vaulted the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers to music fame. Macon performed regularly until shortly before his death in 1952, and he was added to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966.

Doubler is a Murfreesboro native, and his books include “Closing with the Enemy: How GIs Fought the War in Europe, 1944–1945” and “Civilian in Peace, Soldier in War: The Army National Guard, 1636–2000.” He also serves on the board for the annual Uncle Dave Macon Days music festival and is director of the Macon-Doubler Fellowship.

The Center for Popular Music at MTSU, a part of the College of Media and Entertainment, is one of the nation’s largest and richest repositories of research materials related to American vernacular music.

Guests who need accommodations to participate in this event should contact the center in advance at popular.music@mtsu.edu or 615-898-2449.

For more information on MTSU’s Center for Popular Music and its projects and special events, visit www.mtsu.edu/popmusic.